DRUG TESTING CAN BE SAFETY NET

From Hope Rice, Enfield Conn.:

After a recent trip to Conway, I have not been able to get the remarks from
a parent of a high-school girl out of my mind, when she expressed how
adamantly opposed she is to random drug testing for her teen-ager. So
adamant that she would not allow her daughter to participate in
extracurricular activity.

I am frustrated that "perfect parents" who are raising "ideal" children
would wish to prevent a safety net for other children who may be more
typical in today's culture than we like to admit. If the perfect parent's
ideal child is not experimenting with drugs, how in the world, other than a
slight inconvenience, could this be a problem for her? Instead of guarding
your privacy rights, would it not be more compassionate to teach your child
to care more for their peers who may be making some bad decisions, and
identify them as soon as possible before they become another statistic.

Accidents in judgment are made every day in all sorts of ways, but the
drugs these kids are experimenting with today are too intense to leave to
chance. Many of them are addicted before they know what hit them and they
will be left with a life-long partner of addiction or no life at all. This
is such a small sacrifice, I believe.

In a community that is so pro-life, what could be more pro-life than making
every attempt possible to save a teen-ager's life and the life of a family.
If you are teaching your children to be too embarrassed and humiliated to
undergo a drug test, I would worry about how they are going to cope with
every other untidy thing that life will surely offer. Very privately, I suppose.